How does Hofstra use its men in practice? I just spoke with first-year head coach (and Dixon Award candidate?) Krista Kilburn-Steveskey and asked her.

She uses them as one group of a three-group rotation for various drills in practice. Because she often only has 3 or 4 guys, she ends up putting a player or two with them to fill out that group.

Rather than using the guys as a scout team for scrimmages, Coach Kilburn-Steveskey mostly uses them for other types of drills, especially drills where she can use them as trapping and scrambling defenders. For example, she runs fast-break drills 5-4 and 5-3 with the guys as the defenders. Because the guys are so fast and can cover so much ground, it teaches her players to make quick decisions in transition.

The benefits of using men in practice, she said, are "outstanding." "We don’t face anybody in our league with that kind of quickness and athleticism."

I asked if using the guys in practice means that players (especially reserves) end up standing around more. She said no. She hates to waste practice time that way. Practice needs to be constructive, and she wants everyone to be working as much as possible.

"I'm like most coaches -- I can’t stand for people to be standing around," she said. "I want everyone to be moving all the time.”

She said that she wouldn't be surprised if there were some coaches out there who were misusing practice players, or using them in a way that was unfair to some players. But she said that she's never seen anything like that, and she suggested that any problems could be cured by regulations and monitoring along the lines of what the WBCA has proposed.

She asked me if I knew how the CWA came to its conclusions about how coaches use male practice players. I told her that I have no idea.

Hofstra faces one of its biggest tests tomorrow when Hartford comes to town.